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Sheila promises more buses
Hammerman killing
Yoga teacher linked to blasts
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A case of human interest versus justice
Ramp ticket to Bollywood
Dutch queen to arrive on Oct 24
New women’s party
Cervical spondylitis
UGC notifies deemed universities
offering unauthorised courses
Teacher training course held
Drug traffickers held
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Sheila promises more buses
New Delhi, October 14 “We are acquiring new buses and before 2010 there will be 8,000 new buses on the city roads. Till then people have to maintain their patience and remain cautious,” Dikshit told reporters. “These buses will be used in public transport as well as during the Commonwealth Games in the Capital,” she added. She said people should also adhere to traffic rules and contribute in managing traffic on the city roads.There have been 96 deaths this year due to the reckless driving by Blueline drivers. Seven people including a child were killed on Sunday in south Delhi in one of the latest accidents involving Blueline buses. After the Sunday’s mishap, Dikshit passed the onus of managing the privately owned buses to Delhi Police. “All over the world, the traffic management is the responsibility of the police. Don’t blame me for the ongoing crisis. Let them (police) manage the situation.” “We are concerned over the issue. Every one is asking me about the problem, but no one is suggesting a solution. Please don’t pressurise me over the Blueline bus problem,” she had said. — IANS
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Hammerman killing
New Delhi, October 14 Kanhaiya, the main suspect in the murder case of one Sangeeta, who was killed in Baljit Nagar in the Capital on September 27, was arrested. He has been sent in a judicial custody. Kanhaiya killed Sangeeta in the night by hitting her on head with a brick on September 27, after she turned down his proposal to marry him. The brick was found lying beside her body. Rumours about a ‘hammer man’, who allegedly killed women of the area by hitting their heads has been negated. Nearly, ten women have been killed in the area in the same fashion. |
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Yoga teacher linked to blasts
Noida, October 14 Actually terrorists had pasted Tarak Nath’s photograph on their application for getting a mobile connection which, it is learnt, was used in the conspiracy of Ajmer Sharif explosion. Though the photo was that of yoga teacher Tarak Nath, the name and address in the application was that of one Babulal Yadav of West Bengal, the police said. According to sources, the Noida police had also initiated their probe in this connection, though Noida sleuths have not received any authoritative information from the CBI. When terrorists had used yoga teacher Tarak Nath’s photograph for the Hyderabad Mecca Masjid blasts in May this year, the CBI had issued Tarak Nath’s sketch on TV channel as the wanted terrorist who had masterminded the blasts. But the CBI’s action became suspicious when Tarak Nath, after seeing his sketches on TV and in newspapers, went to a TV channel and totally disowned his involvement and said his linking with the blast case was totally wrong and mischievous. |
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A case of human interest versus justice
New Delhi, October 14 The case dates back to May 19, 1986, when Malwa resident Manohar Lal Sharma, riding a high horse as a groom, led his marriage party to his would-be in-laws’place. And bowing to the prevalent custom of showing off before his friends how much he is cared for by the in-laws, Sharma refused to have snacks served to the marriage party after its reception. At this the bride’s father immediately reached the sulking groom and asked what he wanted. Sharma asked for a refrigerator as a marriage gift. Finding the bride’s father readily acceding to the demand, Sharma’s friends instigated him to do the sulking act again and demand something more to show his influence. In the second act, Sharma demanded a scooter. But the second round proved costly for him as the bride’s uncle severely rebuked him for raising his demand. As the members of the marriage party objected to the bride’s uncle rebuking the groom, the matter spun out of control with the bride herself announcing that she did not like his attitude and she wouldn’t marry him. Sharma’s father, Shyam Lal, sought to pacify the bride’s family by telling them that his son was merely following the custom of showing his importance and was not looking for any gift from them. But the damage had already been done. The bride had made up her mind not to marry Sharma and her uncle had already called police. The police arrested not only Sharma, but also his father and elder brother Kishor Lal on the charges of seeking dowry. They were released on bail and faced the trial till December 1990. The trial court acquitted them all after the police failed to pursue the case properly. They failed to produce the girl before the court to depose against Sharma as she had already been married by then and was no longer interested in following up thecase. Police had also failed to take the mandatory permission from the district magistrate to prosecute Sharma under the Dowry Prohibition Act. However, Sharma’s troubles did not end. The Madhya Pradesh government challenged the trial court verdict before the Jabalpur bench of the state high court. Upholding the acquittal of Sharma’s father and brother in August 2006, the High Court convicted Sharma on the charge of seeking dowry and sentenced him to six months in jail, which stands suspended by the bench. Sharma, an engineering diploma holder, meanwhile, got a job and is working as a sub-engineer with the Public Health Engineering De-partment of the state government. During the pendancy of his case, he also got married and is now a father of five children, including four daughters. He is the sole earning member of his joint family, with his father and brother too depending on him. But as per the ruling of the Jabalpur bench of the High Court, he faces a six-month jail term. Once jailed, he would also lose his job for a crime he committed two decades ago. Admitting Sharma’s plea against the High Court ruling, a bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice K.G. Bala- |
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Ramp ticket to Bollywood
New Delhi, October 14 “Actors these days are playing the part of models and a large number of models are turning into actors. Actually the fashion and film industries work well with each other,” actress Neha Dhupia told IANS. Neha started her stint in Bollywood with the film “Qayamat: City Under Threat” one year after she bagged the Miss India title in 2002. Despite the scorching sun, about 150 aspiring models registered on the spot to participate in the Lycra MTV Style Awards model hunt in the Capital this month.“John Abraham, Bipasha Basu and Upen Patel are all well known actors today. All of them started their career as models and then made it to the silver screen. Similarly my main aim is also to do films and earn loads of money,” said 25-year-old Anil Chaudhary, the winner of the Lycra MTV Style Award model hunt.Sneha Bilani, 24, another of the three winners, echoed the same view. “Every model wants to finally work in films. For me, fame and popularity matter the most; so I decided to move into the glamour world of fashion.”Some budding models are ready to try their luck in television serials if not films.“In the last three or four years, the small screen has come to be at par with the silver screen. Through television serials, I want to make my way into every household,” beamed Sakshi Bindra, a budding model who is also pursuing an acting diploma course to hone her skills. Scores of young men and women from across the country had thronged the Fashion Design Council of India’s (FDCI) model hunt for the 10th edition of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) that concluded last month. “Youths these days have more aspirations than people had earlier,” explained Sandeep Dahiya, associate vice president, communications and corporate affairs, MTV India. “It takes guts to walk the ramp, wear attitude on your shoulders, in front of a crowd that constantly glares at every move you make. But the new breed of youngsters is ready to take risks, so they opt for unconventional career options like fashion and films to be famous and earn money,” he said.—IANS |
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Dutch queen to arrive on Oct 24
New Delhi, October 14 The state visit will begin on October 24 in the Capital, where she will start her official appointment with a ceremonial welcome at the presidential palace and the laying of wreath at the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi. President Pratibha Patil will host a state banquet in her honour later that evening. The queen’s last state visit was in 1986. But she had spent her millennium-eve holidays in 1999 on private visit to Rajasthan with the Dutch royal family. For India, the visit will also be an opportunity to brief the Dutch leadership about the Indo-US civil nuclear deal and to seek Dutch support in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).—IANS |
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New women’s party
New Delhi, October 14 The United Women Front (UWF), led by prominent women’s activist Suman Krishan Kant, widow of former Vice-President Krishan Kant, has been started by those who feel disappointed about the political parties’ “hollow promises” on women’s empowerment and their cold responses towards gender issues.The party, to be formally launched on Tuesday, is planning to field its candidates in the November-December elections in Gujarat and Himachal
Pradesh.“Anyway we will have huge presence in the general election whenever it is held,” Kant told IANS here. She said her party has been registered and has 100 active members already.The UWF activists have already
begun their groundwork in states like Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Orissa and Tamil Nadu. “We will soon expand our area
of work to Jammu and Kashmir,” Kant added. After championing the cause of women for over five decades,
Kant said she found an increasing number of wome of violence. “No political party, be it the Congress, the Left or the Bharatiya Janata Party, is taking the women’s issue seriously,” she held. “Even (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi is not able to do things for women because men in her party dominate the decisions.” The other areas of interest for the UWF will be education and poverty alleviation.However, Kant swore that getting reservation for women in parliament and legislative assemblies would not be on the UWF agenda. “We want equality, not reservation,” she declared, referring to the proposed legislation to reserve 33 per cent of seats in all legislative bodies for women.—IANS |
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Artificial disc technique
Our Correspondent
Noida, October 14 According to Prof. A.K. Singh, Head of Neuro surgery department of Fortis Health Care, after the age of 40, almost 60% of the population has radiographic evidence of cervical spine degeneration. Cervical spondylitis is not only neck pain. It also leads to dizziness, fatigue, weakness and stiffness. Pain of spondylitis can be so severe at times that it can be mistaken as the pain of cardiac origin. In cervical spondylitis, the neck pain is the result of the nerve root being irritated commonly due to a degenerated and protruded (extended) disc or due to overgrowth of a bony spicule. When the pressure of the protruded disc increases, it causes numbness in the area of distribution of the nerve or can even compromise the spinal cord which traverses behind the discs. The conventional treatment had been the use of collars and giving tractions irrespective of the cause of the problem. While in some cases, where there is no significant neural pressure, these might help but in others it can actually aggravate the problem. To circumvent this problem, Dr Singh said at Fortis an artificial disc is used which preserves the motion and also imparts height to the intervertebral space i.e. the space from which the disc was removed. These devices came to be known as artificial discs. The traditional treatment involved the taking out the offending disc, and using the patient’s own bone from a different site. This required a very painful process of bone extraction and healing. Using natural bone or synthetic material resulted in the two adjacent vertebrae fusing together, i.e. the natural mobility between the two bones was lost. Dr Hee Hwan Tak of Singapore hospital said the new technique was discovered in 1993 and has been used for hundreds of patients in the USA. He himself has used it on dozens of patients, there are no complaints from patients. He has two such operations in Chennai last week, Dr Tak said. According to Dr Sanjeev Due, Senior Consultant, Neurosurgery, “Cervical Disc Replacement is a new procedure which closely resembles the traditional cervical fusion operation but in which movement is preserved. It does not differ in any way from the cervical fusion procedure. What does differ, however, is that instead of fusing the spine, an artificial disc is inserted which enables movement to continue in a manner which is very similar to the movement of a normal cervical disc.”
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UGC notifies deemed universities
offering unauthorised courses
New Delhi, October 14 Some deemed universities are flagrantly violating rules for seeking authorisation from the UGC and also from the Distance Education Council. The UGC has found that they are offering courses through the distance mode and have established study centres across the country. Private individuals without the approval of the UGC or any other statutory body are running these study centres. The UGC has targeted those deemed universities that offer technical courses like - engineering, medical and para-medical education through “distance mode”. The deemed universities are not entitled to give affiliation to any educational institute. The UGC has further asked to stop private franchising of higher education. As per the Act, study centres being run by distance mode, must have proper infrastructure and should be owned by the deemed university. The UGC in has notified the deemed universities to immediately stop such distance courses that are being run without its permission. If any institute violated any Act under the UGC, it might lead to the withdrawal of ‘Deemed University’ status. The notice has been issued in response to the queries that have been received from students, parents and academia as regards the technical courses being offered by deemed universities through the distance mode. |
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Out of emptiness
New Delhi, October 14 Radhika is rather modest about her work, “These are just outpourings nothing more.” What inspires the artist, “the work just flows from emptiness, I have no thoughts before or after painting.” So to say her art simply paints itself, this is pure art in a very innate sense removed from the limitations of the human mind. Perhaps she does not require inspiration, for her work is inspirational, inspiration painting itself in quietude. In this sense Radhika’s art is rather unique. Few artists have this capacity. Description of such work is difficult for it is energy expressing itself, the untapped material of the universe. Just letting the colour pour over the beholder is a unique experience. Radhika’s art is a rare experience, it is to be experienced, for pure energy is expressing itself through her devoid of content, form or thought. The sheer plethora of geometric abstraction and play of colour make the viewer thoughtless yet energized. Radhika has exhibited several times and around the world. Her current exhibition is her seventh solo and is running at the IIC annexe till October 19. She has participated in numerous group shows and workshops in India and abroad and was awarded the Yamagata Fellowship in 1997 to attend a global workshop at the Concoran gallery in Washington DC. |
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Child sex tourism picks up
New Delhi, October 14 Carmen Madrinan, an international expert in the field, who was here for a UN conference on human trafficking, said the child sex industry in India had spread from its traditional hubs in Goa and Kerala. “It is also gaining momentum in religious places in Tamil Nadu and Orissa,” Madrinan, executive director of the NGO End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and the Trafficking of Children (ECPAT), told IANS. “Asian countries, including Thailand, India and the Philippines, have long been prime destinations for child sex tourists,” said Jeff Avina, director of operations at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Vienna. “India’s economy is booming and it is high time the government here enforced laws more stringently before the situation becomes difficult to manage.” The issue caught media and government attention in India in 1991 when six men were accused of sexually abusing downtrodden children at an orphanage run by co-accused Freddy Albert Peats in Goa. They hailed from countries like Australia, New Zealand and Germany. According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the accused not only sexually assaulted the young boys but also took their nude photographs. Unfortunately, only Peats could be sentenced as the other managed to flee the country. The state, in fact, has a special law against child sexual abuse, the Goa Children Act 2003. The fines and jail terms under it are severe—Rs 100,000 with imprisonment for one to three years for sexual assault and incest, and Rs 200,000 with seven to 10 years’ jail in the case of a grave sexual assault. In other parts of the country, “the accused is booked under rape charges for molesting a girl child while in the case of a male child, the accused is booked for sodomy,” said a senior police official. Child sex tourists are typically male and come from all income brackets. While some tourists are paedophiles who seek out children for sexual relationships, many are situational abusers who do not consistently seek out children as sexual partners. According to a study conducted by ECPAT, more than one million children worldwide are drawn into the sex trade each year. “Male boys are more victimised or sought after in the industry,” Madrinan said. “Global work against child sex tourism has revealed that individuals and groups with a sexual interest in children have learned to use the infrastructure of tourism and the backdrop of socio-economic exclusion that at times surrounds tourist centres to abuse children for sex.”She said the most significant societal factor that pushes children into prostitution is poverty. “Children in these families become easy targets for procurement agents in search of young children. They are lured away from broken homes by ‘recruiters’ who promise them jobs in a city and then force the children into prostitution. Some poor families themselves send their children for prostitution or sell them into the sex trade to obtain desperately needed money,” Madrinan added. Renuka Choudhary, minister of women and child development, told IANS: “Sex tourism exists in almost every country and we are aware of the problem here. Paedophiles would not be spared at any cost. “I have complained about sex tourism to the home ministry and they have assured me of taking appropriate action on it,” Choudhary added.—IANS |
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Teacher training course held
New Delhi, October 14 The CIE trainers from England were Joanne Hargreaves, who chaired the First Language English sessions, and Marian Cox, who led the Business Studies conference. The teacher training conference was formally inaugurated on Saturday. |
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Drug traffickers held
New Delhi, October 14 Satish and Vickey, dealing in narcotics, were arrested after several months from the Nand Nagri area in the Capital. However, the case was not solved and the police realised it to be a wider nexus. Later, the team apprehended one Sunil Kumar from the same area with 2 kgs of heroin worth Rs 2 crore in the international market. — TNS |
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